Early Opportunities and Fourth-Grade Success

• In Event: 53.065 - School Readiness: Indicators, Predictors, and Effects

Abstract

The persistence of the achievement gap between low income children and their more privileged peers has left us wrestling with the best way to create opportunity for all children but two facts are clear: the gap appears before the start of formal schooling and federal initiatives have failed to eliminate it. Preliminary analyses of a 50 state dataset of early childhood education state policies and their association with 4th grade NAEP scores shows that most states sponsor partial prekindergarten programs and no consistent relationship between policies for prekindergarten programs and a reduction in the achievement gap emerges, implying that universal programs may not be the most effective way for states to use limited tax dollars to reduce the achievement gap.

Authors

• Maryellen Schaub, The Pennsylvania State University

• Andrew Pendola, Auburn University

• Ismael Munoz, The Pennsylvania State University

• Mayli Zapata, The Pennsylvania State University